Category: Harvest

More Fall Sowing

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Tomato and squash side of the plot today

This afternoon, I did some weeding and sowed two rows of fall greens (mix of lettuces, arugula, mustard greens, kale) and more cilantro. The beets, cilantro and basil I sowed three weeks ago, on August, 2 have sprouted but are tiny. I also harvested a second batch of Thai basil to make Thai basil pesto in the next couple of days.

Rabbit-proof part of the plot (kale chard, lettuces plus Thai basil)

Preparing Garlic for Storage

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Cleaned softneck garlic and strawflowers

This morning, I cleaned my garlic and prepared it for storage. As usual, I made a braid from the Transylvania softneck garlic, but this time, I added strawflowers for decoration.

All braided!

It is my first time growing strawflowers in my garden plot, and I am growing them specifically for this purpose. They just started to bloom, so there will be many more flowers in the next weeks and months. I suspect the final garlic braid will look much more colorful than this first version as I will be adding more flowers.

Left to right: Final braid hanging in the pantry, just braided frontal view, back view

I also cleaned the Red Russian hardneck garlic. I will leave the stems a bit longer for another couple of weeks before I cut them short. I just want to be sure they are completely dry. Those will then be stored in an open crock in the pantry and will be used up first as they do not keep as well as the softneck garlic. As usual, I saved the largest heads as seed garlic for fall planting – two heads for each type.

Hardneck garlic after cleaning

Overall, I put 2 lbs. 3 oz. of softneck garlic (17 heads) and 1 lb. 15 oz. of hardneck garlic (15 heads) into storage. One of the hardnecks may have been a softneck, but to be sure, I placed it with the hardnecks to be used up first. 36 heads were harvested overall, from 35 planted.

My German garlic storage crock
Hardneck clove. So flavorful and “juicy”. This is what happens when you selectively plant the largest cloves each fall – my garlic is getting bigger every year.

Pesto Time

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Made my first batch of “pesto” yesterday. I forgot to take pictures of the actual product (which is just basil, olive oil and salt for more versatility). I pureed everything and scooped it into an ice cube tray and covered it with more olive oil. This morning, I moved the frozen cubes to a ziplock bag. There will be several more batches, and I will make one that is an actual pesto with garlic, nuts (likely sunflower seeds), and cheese. Nothing better than to pull a couple of cubes from the freezer in the middle of winter to add to pasta or use as pizza base, focaccia topping or over chicken or fish.